In mesh networks, such as networks operating according to the IEEE 802.11s standard, handsets, such as mobile phones, operating as stations in the network operate in a mesh mode wherein they may act as repeaters for other stations' communications. This impacts the available bandwidth for a station as the station has to share its bandwidth with other stations' communications in order to relay the communication.
Also, as the relaying or intermediate station receives the communication at a bit rate and then has to relay it but also a response received, the bit rate for the next jump is reduced by 50%. This degradation in bandwidth for the jumps (i.e. number of relaying stations) puts an upper limit to the number of jumps that may be included in a path at a set (starting) bandwidth. Multi-hop bandwidth degradation is at best 1/n and at worst ½n-1, where n is the number of hops.
Also, as the link throughput goes down as two stations are moved apart (for a fixed transmission power) the throughput is degraded even more.
There is thus a need for a method and a station that enables for a stable communication network to be maintained and which provides a high quality of service even for stations far apart.